Law, politics, pop culture, sports, and a touch of Oregon.

About this site

CommentsWhen you submit a comment, it won't be published until approved. This is to cut down on comment spam. However, I will also edit or block comments that are profane or offensive.

No Legal AdviceAlthough I may from time to time discuss legal issues on this blog, nothing that I post should be construed as legal advice, nor as creating an attorney-client relationship between you and me. In fact, there's a good chance I'm not licensed to practice law wherever you are. If you need legal advice, you should consult an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

Personal ViewThis blog is neither affiliated with my employer nor hosted by it. It is maintained through TypePad, and I pay the hosting fees. Nothing that is posted here should be construed as anything other than the views of the particular author of the post.

Bloggers

Stats

November 29, 2004

First, our household has finally given in to the inevitable and joined the Tivo-craze. On more than one occasion, commenters have suggested that I get Tivo, and now we have it. It's pretty neat, except for the ungangly 25 foot phone cord that barely reaches the nearest phone outlet. But we're having a new phone jack put in much closer so there won't be that tripping hazard. . . .

As you may know, one of the things Tivo does is recommend shows based on what you tell it that you like. The first pass involved all kinds of bad reality TV shows as well as syndicated adventure shows like "The Lost World," "Nightman," and "Andromeda." Maybe I'll post some of the more bizarre suggestions down the road.

On to last week's "The Apprentice." The task was to come up with an edgy bottle design for Pepsi's new Edge drink (a regular/diet mix). Not surprisingly, Jenn M. was sent from Apex to Mosaic to balance out the teams. Why is Jenn. M. so disliked? I'll admit that her stock has dropped in recent episodes, and her accepting credit for Ivana's wheel-o-jeans idea wasn't her best moment (but to be fair, she was acting in self-defense, since her teammates Kevin and Ivana were conspiring against her). Still, she is poised, well-spoken, and fairly level-headed. Certainly, she still has done better than Ivana or Sandy, and possibly Kevin.

In any event, Apex, led by Kelly, came up with the superior design. Mosaic, led by Andy, bombed with some hideous bottle that looked like a sideways dumbbell. Apex won, and as a reward, got to go drive Lambourghinis on a racetrack, prompting Ivana to say that she hadn't driven a sports car since she wrecked the Porsche that her dad gave her when she turned 16. Hmm, it's pretty much impossible to muster up any sympathy or positive feelings toward Ivana . . . .

In the boardroom, it looked like Sandy was going to get fired until Jenn. M. brought up the fact that Andy had told her that Ivana wanted her (Jenn) to be fired. This led Sandy to argue that Andy and Jenn had allied against her, and as the boardroom descended into a bickering match between the two women, Andy basically stayed out of it. Then Trump fired him for having been out-debated by Sandy.

Yeah, maybe if we're calling "Crossfire" debating as well. . . .

I don't think Andy did a good job this episode. He was dictatorial with the design crew, refusing to let them eat pizza that had been delivered until they finished the task. He was also condescending with them, offering them "cash incentives" of $100 each. (Of course, no clients ever tipped me when I was working for the law firm, but if they had, I don't think I would have accepted. It just doesn't seem right when you're working a white collar job to take a tip.) And the ultimate bottle design sucked.

But . . . Sandy deserved to be fired if you took the long view of things. Her presentation was awful; she couldn't speak in complete sentences, and she made George Bush sound like Tony Blair. And if you look at past projects, Andy has consistently been a strong performer. He was brilliant in leading his team to victory in the NYPD recruiting ad, and he saved Sandy when she was the project manager in the home remodelling task (by bringing in the additional contractors to finish the job). His only slip-ups were losing the cell phone on one task and coming up with the dumb "Crustacean Nation" toy in the first week (but in his defense, no one came up with a better idea). Meanwhile, Sandy has contributed nothing other than the week where the project just happened to be in her line of business (bridal salons).

At this point, here's how I see the remaining five:

Kelly: The favorite to win right now. He has immunity this week, so he's guaranteed to get into the final four, and I'm pretty sure he'll survive the interview by Trump's underlings to get to the final 2. He's won twice as project manager and he's regarded as a strong presence.

Kevin: Probably a better shot than Jenn to make it to the final 2, but talk about going under the radar. He hasn't had any disasters (other than his presentation to Levi's, when he was dripping buckets of sweat), but hasn't really stood out. He did have a good idea of a charity tie-in on one of the earlier projects, and his attempt to help Elizabeth when she was the horrible project manager in the NYPD recruiting ad was admirable.Jenn M.: Should make it to the final 4, but as noted above, her stock has dropped in recent weeks. I don't think she's an airhead, as Ivana and Kevin do, but maybe I'm biased in favor of lawyers. Still, her weaker moments have been in the past few weeks, which is not a good sign for her.

Ivana: No chance to win. She's been in the boardroom too many times, was a terrible project manager, and has had one shining moment (the wheel-o-jeans). Plus, the previews for this week don't look good for her, with her offering to drop her shorts for $20 in a cookie selling challenger. As Carolyn would say, "That kind of thing is not going to get you hired here."

Sandy: No chance to win. Trump has shown that he's school-conscious to a certain degree, and Sandy didn't go to college. Last year's non-college grad, Troy, was a much stronger performer, and he didn't even make it to the final four.

August 07, 2004

In the first class I taught, Federal Courts, I announced at the end of each class who would be on call the next class. This was the approach that then-Prof. Fletcher (and now Judge Fletcher) used, and I thought it was effective. The theory is that if you know you're on call, you'll be prepared that day.

I didn't have as much luck with it as a prof, so I switched to not announcing any strategy at all, though the first time through it becomes clear that I'm just going across the rows until everyone has been called on once. (Any Iowa law students reading this who are going to be in one of my lecture courses, just pretend you don't know!) Then I move to random selection.

Now, I've heard stories about professors who take a deck of cards and attach students' photos, and then before each round of Socratic dialogue, take out the deck, shuffle it, and pick a card/student.

While I love playing cards, the idea of shuffling the deck seems a little too, I don't know, ostentatious. Then I came across this program, called CallOnMe! that lets you input student lists and then generate a student to be called on randomly.

Whipping out the good ol' PDA in class and pressing the touchscreen is just the height of tech-geekiness, but perhaps I shall have to try it once or twice.

July 21, 2004

For those of you who have Palm OS PDAs, here are a couple of great deals. First, PalmGear has been giving away a free program every day this month. (Unfortunately, I only found out about it a few days ago.) These aren't top of the line programs (no Premium Documents to Go), but some of them are worth keeping.